THE WALL STREET JOURNAL MONDAY, MAR 23, 1981

A Voice Cries Out:

Money Is Not
The Root of ALL Evil!!

The plain truth about an old adage

   MANY HAVE supposed the Bible says money is the root of all evil. It doesn’t.
     Money is a commodity—a medium of exchange for human convenience. It replaces the need to swap goods and services.
     The thought that money, of itself, could be an evil reminds me of a boyhood experience. I was brought up in a respected church. Somehow I had the assumption the church believed that a pair of dice, a glass of wine, a cigarette or a theater was sin. Therefore we teenage boys stole away without parental knowledge on a Sunday afternoon to enjoy a matinee.
     I suppose the motivation compared to that which caused people to buy a booklet on Hollywood newsstands some years ago titled How to Sin in Hollywood. The little book merely carried the names of restaurants and nightclubs.
     Just what IS this thing called “sin”? I once asked a crusading evangelist if he would give me a biblical definition of the word. He couldn’t—or wouldn’t. But to satisfy curiosity you’ll find the definition in 1 John 3:4, coupled with Romans 7:12, 14. Sin is a harmful way of life. It is transgression of an inexorable spiritual Law, as relentless as the law of gravity. It is wrongdoing. The thing or the commodity is not evil, but the wrong use of it may be. The evil comes from evil motivations, intentions, attitudes and actions. It comes from what we call “the heart.” It is spiritual, not materialistic, in principle.
     Therefore, our troubles, sufferings and evils in the world are spiritual, not physical or materialistic, in nature.
     That’s why human accomplishments and achievements in the world are AWESOME, while at the same time we cannot solve our problems or eradicate the word’s evils.
     The basic spiritual law—invisible, not understood, yet inexorable—is a WAY OF LIFE! It is the way of outflowing love. Its violation is the way I term “GET” for brevity. This world has been living the way of “GET”—of coveting—of vanity and self-centeredness, but, toward others, of hostile competition leading to strife, violence and war—of envy and jealousy, of resentment of authority. That incentive of mind and heart is spiritual in principle. It is the root cause of all the world’s troubles, seemingly unsolvable problems and evils that beset us.
     The basic invisible spiritual LAW is outflowing LOVE—loving God from the heart and mind, and loving neighbor as self.
     But what about MONEY? Money of itself is not evil. What the Bible does say about money is “the love of money is the root of all evil” (1 Timothy 6:10). Money itself is a material commodity. It may be put to very good use. It is the wrong motivation and attitude of mind and heart in relation to its use that may be evil.
     Jesus did not decry money. Many of the great of the Bible were wealthy—Abraham, Joseph, Job, Joseph of Arimathea. Jesus did not disdain the rich because of money, but dined with them as well as with the poor. He called on all people to repent of transgressing the WAY of outflowing LOVE toward others. The test is the spiritual motive and attitude of mind and heart. They, not money of itself, are the root of all evil.
    

Herbert W. Armstrong
(1892-1986)